Monster Girl Doctor

Episode 11

We open on a city council meeting where Skadi has spoken with the citizens of Lindworm. As she heads to the exit, Dr. Glenn confronts her about the need to have the surgery. She refuses and leaves. Back at the clinic, Glenn is continuing to help Arahnia prepare for the surgery. Arahnia begins to get flirty and Sapphentite reminds Glenn that he needs to head up to the hospital to get him out of the room. Later that evening, Sapphentite, Arahnia, and Tisalia go out for a girls night. While they are having dinner they discuss the “ginjo” alcohol that Tisalia was able to get using her connections. This alcohol is apparently strong enough to be used as an anesthetic for dragons, which will greatly help in Skadi's surgical procedure.

They also discuss love and threads. Arahnia mentions that she makes no distinction between real and fake love, men or women, she just likes what she likes and follows that interest. After dinner they return to the clinic, and Sapphentite hears a rustling in Glenn's office. It is none other than Arahnia trying to steal a small golden locket belonging to Glenn. Sapphentite tells her to stop as it was a gift she had given him. Arahnia tries to flee by jumping out of the window but Tisalia is waiting for her and she has nowhere to run.

They take her back up to the room and try to find out what is going on. It turns out that Arahnia keeps finding herself thinking about Glenn and how infuriating he is. She cannot seem to figure him out, like how he is still kind to her even though she is constantly messing with him. Tisalia and Sapphentite get a good laugh out of this and diagnose her as lovesick for Dr. Glenn.

Meanwhile, Glenn approaches Skadi while she is overlooking the city in the bell tower. They discuss how she has worked so hard to create this city to bring about peace and end the war between humans and monsters. She feels that she has done what she set out to do even though she can no longer return to Heaven. Glenn tells her that part of why he wants her to go through with the surgery is that she deserves to not only see this project to its completion, but witness the fruit that it bears as well.

Skadi agrees to do the surgery. On the day of the big event, everyone works hard to remove the tumor from her chest. Things are going well until Skadi's body realizes something is wrong. Cthulhy points out that she may have a small form but she is actually a fire dragon, and much like a human body reacting to a cold, her body begins to exude intense heat now that it senses something is wrong. Sapphentite and Arahnia back away to a safer distance, Cthulhy holds open the skin of Skadi's chest, and Dr. Glenn goes in with his knife to cut out the tumor. We get a spray of noxious fumes into the air and a beam of light, then fade to credits unsure of the operation's success.

This was a pretty good episode overall. In some ways it was not as engaging emotionally as things have been with, say, Sapphentite or Tisalia, but it was an interesting attempt to try and give Arahnia a bit more depth. Her having a crush on Glenn because of how infuriatingly wholesome he is in the face of her advances is novel, but the “action” surrounding her theft and attempted escape felt awkward, though I can't quite put my finger on why.

The scenes with Skadi and Glenn in the tower were pleasant. Their conversation carries a heavier tone than usual for the show. I think the lack of the overt sexual dimension that exists in the scenes with the rest of the cast help these moments actually feel distinct and perhaps make their romance more “earned” than with the others.

The surgery itself was tense but not quite what it could have been. I assume by next episode it will all be wrapped up and done with, but for as long as we've spent building towards this moment it feels a bit brief. I did like the twist of the noxious explodey gases being a surprise threat, and the bit with Cthulhy's tentacles burning even as she's trying to hold the sutures in place was also great.

There were also some interesting uses of POV shots in this episode. We had a few during the Skadi and Glenn conversation that felt like it was trying to really lean into Skadi as “the” romantic pairing for Glenn. The odd one for me was the choice to do a POV shot from the perspective of Skadi's tumor as Glenn comes down with the scalpel. I'm not sure what the intent was, but having the knife coming straight towards the viewer made the scene read a little oddly for me.

There was no particularly egregious fan service in this episode. Obviously, Skadi was shown largely bare in the surgery scenes but outside of one shot where the camera was positioned at the foot of the operating table, it was rather tame by what has happened in the show previously.

In any case it was a serviceable episode without anything overtly shocking. I'm curious as to what the finale will look like as we ramp up towards the end here.

Rating:

Grant is the cohost on the Blade Licking Thieves podcast and Super Senpai Podcast.

Monster Girl Doctor is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.